Legacy writing

[strangetomato]

Writing a chapter for The Round Robin Legacy has been an interesting challenge. I have so much respect for story legacy writers now. It's hard to take all the nonsense that can go on in a sim generation, and the mundane routine of it all, and spin it into a coherent and interesting narrative. I'm curious to hear about the working methods of other legacy writers, since I know a few of you who follow my story write one. Do you impose a story on your sims, and direct them in certain ways? Do you add more story details later, about things that didn't even really happen that way? Or is it all straight delivery of the facts, but through a narrative lens? 



I'm easily more interested in legacies with an overarching vision that extends beyond gameplay. I don't read a lot of legacies, but the ones that I do follow all have detailed plots that include things that would never happen in the game. For direct reporting on the gameplay, a commentary style seems to work better (at least for me), like when people do outtakes.

Following that logic, I went into this with an idea in mind, based on the facts of the character, and playing through has mostly followed my expectations, with a couple of nice extra details and ACR surprises. Then, because it's so linear, I broke it up about halfway and changed location and play style completely. I'm not even sure if moving in the middle of a generation is allowed, but it didn't give me any sort of advantage (in fact, I left a hefty portion of Nyssa's money in her first apartment, which I left decorated, so I could shoot some scenes images there later for the story). It annoys me to take a lot of pictures while I'm playing, so I'm going to go back and recreate some of the important scenes later with help from InSIM.  Does anyone else do it that way? I figure it saves on a lot of unnessesary documenting.

The pacing is a little difficult for me too. Most family sagas take a whole movie or novel to follow a generation, so tackling one in a short story feels rushed to me. It's a very different sort of story than I'm used to... like an episode of This Is Your Life. It takes some getting used to.

The most fun has been from technically following the legacy rules. I really like having that limitation, and the story can still work around the actual facts of the gameplay. I don't think I'd want to work this way all of the time, but it's been interesting for a change of pace. Usually, I take some inspiration from the gameplay, but it's much more open, and there are no rules. If I want to cheat for money to make the Worthingtons rich, I can. I don't have to work up from nothing, over and over again. I realize that most legacy players don't even follow the rules, so maybe it's not all that different.

If you write a legacy, or have attempted one but couldn't get into it, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.


.

On a completely unrelated note, I had about about six inches of my hair cut off today. I went from long, flowing hair to a short, blunt-cut bob. I look a lot younger. Like I'm fifteen, but in a good way. I really like it.

Comments

[hidden-kitten.livejournal.com]

So, you have a writing challenge :) This is something different for you, and it seems you're enjoying the constricted style of play.
And, based on your second paragraph, colour me flattered that you read my uglacy :$

I have nothing constructive to say, sorry :(

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It really is a challenge. The time restriction is different too. I only have three weeks, and I'm about halway into it, and I'm not even finished with the gameplay yet. I can see there being a rush at the last minute to pull it together. ;)

It is enjoyable. There's more than one way to do it, but all story legacies have certain things in common, and they're different from completely pre-planned and scripted stories.

You use a mostly commentary style in your legacies, and I find it entertaining. If we're just following gameplay, I'd usually rather read amusing remarks about it than have it told in story form. I probably read just as many commentary legacies as I do story ones, really.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

When I started my legacy, it was just a commentary, and it was a lot easier. I started writing it "through a narrative lens" (btw, LOVE that phrase) when I got two abductions in two nights, and decided to ~go with the flow~.

It sucked at first- I didn't have enough pictures to really flesh out the Sims as children/teens, it was mostly pictures of them skilling, but I continued giving them personalities and the like. Nothing really -happened- though, it was more of a "Family Album Story" than anything else, until Dorothy decided she wanted to be heir and everything changed. I began planning scenes out beforehand, writing dialog months before the scenes were shot, planning out certain events (I wish I was caught up so you could see what I'm talking about) and basically directing the story and the plot where I wanted it to go while making allowances for in-game surprises (like Eurus's dislike of Enyo, his half-sister by alien abduction, and Ev's worries about his Criminal mother). I stopped playing by the rules with the Cranes, which is so freeing, since I want to do so many things (I have like 19 pages filled with G5 plot plans) with them, so yeah, it is hard. Especially when the change is so jarring (literally from one chapter to the next).

With the Thornns, I mixed them both when certain events just "worked"- Julien stalked Sil, Wyatt's LTW and Alvin's job- everything was perfect, so I threw in some plot. I -do- have to update it soon, but I'm very involved with my Cranes at the moment.

I cannot wait for your Round Robin post (I caught myself up) and your haircut sounds cool. Pics? (You could blot out the face. Or, use a character's face! :P)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It seems like that does happen to some people. It starts out as a commentary and moves into a narrative, and then the next thing you know, you're setting up elaborate scenes.

I think it's only natural, if you're the sort of person who likes to tell stories, that you'd see more in the sims than is really there. It's when we impose this extra stuff on them that it moves into a real story for me. I love when things are taken out of context and changed in a story. It becomes really complex, with all the setting up of scenes, but that's what makes a story for me, most of the time. It can be hard to deal with all the details when it gets complicated, though, don't you think? I'm having issues like that with Strangetown.

I should take a look at your Cranes. It sounds like I'd need to do some back-reading, though, so I'll know what's going on.

I'm tempted to show a photo of it. Maybe I will. It's too good not to share.

[smjoshsims.livejournal.com]

I completely agree. I've seen many a legacy turn into a story over time.

*nods* The setting up of scenes is very hard at times, and having a flair for the dramatic DOES NOT help you (trust me, I know). Having a lot of details doesn't help you either, especially when you give your characters as rich a backstory as you do, and even I have to constantly look things up. ^^;

Aww! I'm going to do a recap once I catch up (I'm going to do 8 updates in the next three weeks, it's srs bsns) so that new readers won't be daunted by the number of posts they have to read to know what's happening.

DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT! You can use Ophelia's face. :P

[ownsimscorner.livejournal.com]

It seems like that does happen to some people. It starts out as a commentary and moves into a narrative, and then the next thing you know, you're setting up elaborate scenes.
This describes perfectly what happened to me and, yes, it did came out of my love of telling stories.

I started by adding some extra details here and there, and more details kept coming up and soon as I know it there`s a full blown storyline going on and the writing style changes accordingly. *has just staged several semi elaborated scenes and keeps coming up with more*

[sadieg79.livejournal.com]

Well, I wanted to try out a legacy, but couldn't think of a good enough back-story to keep my interest at first - and I get bored easily, so writing a story on it was the best way to keep me playing.

Decided in the end on a diary-type, half-commentary, half-narrative that goes more on in-game events; the reason I played this in the first place was light relief from my main story, and that included the setting up of scenes.

I'm trying to play as straight as possible, although I may have to remove some more annoyance fixes to make it more interesting. For now I find other ways to inject some spice into the story - I decided to add a secondary theme in the end, making it a witchy legacy where all subsequent children get a surprise birthday present when they hit adolescence ;)

I'm still tempted to add the aging regulator mods though - I know it's cheating, but I'm sick of the pets' adult lifespan being almost as long as their human owners - who get ripped off themselves IMO :-/

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to play through it and then try to make sense of it and create a story. For me, I instantly thought of a story idea, but then altered it as I played and things changed. I'll also tell it in a less linear way, though it will still follow the life events. I liked playing through the whole life and then looking back. It's almost like writing a memoir for a sim.

It really is a nice break from a more set-up story, even though I'm still doing that in some places (I have been documenting scenes if I know they'll be useful, but others will have to be fleshed out later).

ACR has done wonders for adding spice. I especially love risky woohoo and how sims can try to get pregnant on their own. It's very interesting with a female romance/family sim. I let her choose the genetics for some of the children, though I chose the options she could pick from.

I've never tried those age hacks. I'm a little nervous about them. There's always the elixer of life for extending sim life, but something to make pets age faster would be useful at times.

[sadieg79.livejournal.com]

TJ's age duration hack can be found here and the pet age duration can be found here. While there is the elixir, it doesn't do everything TJ's mod does ;) They just work on new sims though, that's the only problem - although it does affect existing sims transitioning to adult and elder.

You're really tempting me to put ACR into my legacy now :P

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

I can't wait to see what you do for the Round Robin! Being faced with this kind of challenge can probably strengthen your storytelling skills- like making the mundane sound interesting and squeezing so much into a short story. I'm probably going to do one with some of my other LJ friends, and I'm excited!

That's funny, two days ago I did the same thing to my hair. Are you stalking me or something? :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I like using the random game events to shape the story. I do that with Strangetown too, to some extent. The LTWs are my favourite way to determine what will happen. Nyssa has been wonderful in that regard. All three of her LTWs so far have followed a logical path for a story (yes, I am a sim master, I know. :P Not really... career LTWs are pretty easy to achieve).

The round robin element can really throw you off, since the previous person can really set you in a certain direction, but finding a way to switch it to something more your style is another fun challenge.

Yes. Yes, I am. :P Not really, though... I didn't know you did that. I saw your sim_spam post, but I didn't know you had actually cut it. Is it chin length too? What are the odds?

[xel-squirgle-ox.livejournal.com]

It's about a half inch longer than chin length, and it does look pretty cute. However, I just know I am going to want to cut more off in a few weeks. Hmm, maybe taking pretty pictures of me might make me feel better about my hair.

[dothesmustle.livejournal.com]

I just write a commentary legacy, so I don't think I'm much help here. What I do *try* attempt to do with my legacies, is try to get ~character~ out of my sims(usually the heirs/heiresses) and just work from there. It's hard to get their personalities sometimes, especially, when the house is crowded and ALL THEY DO IS INTERACT. (How DARE they have social lives?) Alienating them for a little bit helps me find something funny or quirky about them that makes them "special" or whatever. My founder Camille, probably wouldn't have ever spoken to her gnome if she had actually welcomed her welcome wagon, haha.

Anyway, I doubt that's much help for someone who is writing a story, but it's a "trick" I use, I guess.

Writing commentary is definitely easier than actually planning out a story, the only difficult thing about writing a commentary legacy, is that it can EASILY get boring and you have to ~spice things up~ or something, lol. I guess that occurs with story legacies as well...uh yeah I forgot what I was going with there. *needs sleep*

I seriously don't have much to say /rambleramble

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

You're an excellent example of a really good commentary legacy writer. I probably follow your legacies more than any others. And there is a lot of personality in your sims, which makes all the difference. You do give them a story in a way too, but the way your deliver it makes perfect sense for a dealing with the game events head-on like that.

That's excellent advice for finding character. I'm often so focussed on playing to achieve wants that I don't give the sims much idle time. I'll need to take your advice to weed out personalities for the children.

I don't think commentary style is easy at all. There's an art to making things funny, most definitely. I'm sure some people even manage to combine the commentary and story forms into some interesting hybrid too. Lots of stories have funny like meta references to the gameplay. I try to do that at times, because it's fun to point to the fact that they're sims and it's really all just a game.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

Although I've said many times that I'm an awful cheater regarding my Legacy, I DO follow some of the rules of the challenge. For example, I never use the aging on/off cheat or use Insim to add days to a sim (except with the Elixir, which is allowed). I also don't use money cheats, so everything that is seen on the main legacy house has been bought with the money that has been earned through gameplay. Same goes for the career and aspiration rewards.

I give money to the spares, though, because once they leave the main house they are no longer constricted to the Legacy rules (and I also age their kids for my spare stories or to synch them with the current heir's children).

The rules I've ignored are the no marrying playable characters (although I re-created Lilith, Bella and Puck as townies, but once I married Buck into the family I broke the rule), the no hacks rule (come on, I'm a hack addict! :D) and I'm sure there are a million others I can't remember right now. I wanted to keep all my ghosts in the lot, but my computer didn't like the strain from them. Maybe once I move my family back to a regular lot, I'll bring them back.

As far as storytelling, I have a vague idea of what I want for the plot, but I keep playing the lot the normal way, just adding the elements that could unchain the event I want. For example, back at the beginning I wanted Beau to cheat on his girlfriend Renee and marry Lucy, so I brought her to Strangetown along with her cousin Lilith, hoping that through normal play (and considering their high chemistry) they'd fall in love. But Beau never fell in love with Lucy, and actually ended marrying Lilith.

Right now there's an alien conspiracy planned for my current generation. I have no idea when is it going to happen, though, because I just created the "evil" aliens and set them free as townies. I hope that sooner or later my teen heir is going to meet them at a community lot (or they are going to walk in front of his house), and then I'll see how will they relate and go from there. I also didn't plan to introduce Ninjas, or to have my sims become movie actors or rock stars. That came from their LTW, their interests and their "One True Hobby". So in a way I just develop the story from the gameplay of my legacy, trying to fill the spaces with explanations for their random actions (or plot holes) and creating situations according to my plans, but always ignoring their outcome.

And since I installed ACR, things have become even more random!

The biggest limitation with a Legacy is the character development. Because I don't mess with my sims' ages, time is always moving, so I often have to rush some things before they age. Many times I've been criticized because I rush my romantic relationships, but I did that mostly because if I had spent more sim days for that, then the sims would become too old to spawn children, and that's the point of a legacy, to continue the family line.

When I have scenes set in remote or special locations, I usually clone my sims for the pics I need, but most of the time I just take too many pics of my random gameplay and then select the ones that make more sense according to my story. I sadly have to ditch the ones that make commentary legacies so funny, but I really can't do that kind of legacy. I'm not funny at all.

Phew! I guess that's my game play in a nutshell.

Hee, you are very brave for cutting off so much hair at once! But I'm glad you liked the result. The one time I cut my hair short was actually because I had no other option :P. And I look older with short hair, I have no idea why (maybe because I'm curly?)

[swhedonberry.livejournal.com]

The way I play is a mixed bag. I started with a commentary style, but it quickly morphed into a narrative. The gameplay aspects of the legacy are worked into the storyline now. If it's something that can't work with the storyline, I allow it to become something else. For example, I needed to get Cordelia and her husband Gregg divorced, but I made the mistake of moving her out before I divorced them. Because of their hurt relationship, I couldn't get Gregg to come to the lot so that Cordi could initiate the divorce. I worked it into the storyline that Gregg wouldn't give Cordelia a divorce out of spite. Eventually, Cordelia had to blackmail him to get out of the marriage. I got him to the lot by the eldest daughter becoming friends with his illegitimate son who introduced her to his father. Then, I could invite him over to get the divorce.

In truth, I will always choose plot over the rules, but try to stick to the spirit of the challenge. Playables are fair game to me and I often use them as spouses for heirs and whatnot. I rarely play the playables until the characters involve themselves anyway. Hell, Johnny Smith pretty much didn't give me a choice in the matter. He decided that he was going to be with Cordi regardless of my intent to honor the rules, so I let that one go. I try to play in a somewhat rotative style so that characters have the opportunity to emerge on their own, but I doubt that I'll ever be a player with 60 households in a rotation.

[naughtydolphin.livejournal.com]

With my Dear Diary story, I have a rough storyline that I follow, and set scenes up to get the photos I want, but I also let them have free will occasionally, which has given me some plot twists I hadn't planned on (like cheating, pregnancy, fist fights). I'll use some images to suit the story, even if that's not what was going on, but I'll also sometimes change the story to suit an image. Because it's all in the first person (though that does switch between mother and daughter), I'll include pictures of scenes that don't involve Zady or Yolanda, and they'll either be talking about it like someone else told them, or they'll be talking about something else that works with the images. Like in one of my recent chapters, Zady was away at the beach and her husband couldn't join her. She wrote in her diary about how much she missed him and wanted him to be there, and I showed the pictures of where he and Kaylynn started getting it on thanks to ACR. She didn't know about it, but it adds to the anticipation for the reader. Well, I hope so, anyway!

I am kind of doing this like a legacy, in the sense that I plan on Yolanda and/or one of her siblings take over as a main character, but I want there to be more story and plot rather than just chronicling like a normal legacy. And I do use cheats out the wazoo, because skilling up and all that isn't important to the story.

[showercapfrog.livejournal.com]

I think the hardest things with legacies is that they often end up being a rinse, wash, and repeat style thing.

I'm actually commenting to say that I figured out where you got your name from. Go me!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangeways,_Here_We_Come

I now have to stop stalking you :p

[themorganlegacy.livejournal.com]

With the narrative legacy I'm writing right now, it's a mix of adding in plots myself and working with what they give me (which, thanks to ACR, is a lot :P). And I'm sure I have more to say than this, but I'm totally drawing a blank atm. ^^;;

[simnovoris.livejournal.com]

Legacy writing is very different from telling a big story featuring a whole hood. I've recently started writing down my legacy story idea and so far so good - it's a lot of fun, being able to focus entirely on one family and truly pull the personalities out of them.

I always play, though. Even with Veronaville I base the story on actual gameplay more than anything else but I've noticed a tendency to stage more lately. But the usual set-up for me is: raw idea for subplots and detailed idea for main plot -> gameplay with hacks and free will on and picture taking -> writing -> photoshoots for more images/images that will fit the story better.

What I like about the few legacies that I read is often the feeling of sync - I love seeing other families in the neighbourhood and their children grow up together with the heirs and spares, I like having a town feel. Which, I realise, is more Prosperity than anything else, but the focus on one single family is just boring to me. Especially when it comes to playing/writing.

[madame-ugly.livejournal.com]

Legacy writing is the ultimate "write as you go" practice (for me at least). You have to watch those little pixel critters like a hawk, waiting to get pics that can be taken out of context.

I found the Round Robin to be the perfect amount of legacy for me. Ten generation legacies are demanding. Trying to make each generation interesting and keep within the confines of the story you've already written. Even with less story (more commentary) ones you're constantly refering back to stuff.

[laridian.livejournal.com]

Well, I've got my completed Tellermans, and that was useful to have a storyline, which I came up with in Gen 4 - Antares' abduction spawned the plot for the rest of the legacy and beyond. The Durrances sometimes have a plot and sometimes don't. CoH Sims started commentary and switched to story.

I actually had a harder time with Gen 1 of Round Robin because anything I did wasn't going to last past that generation. Sure, I could work up what the kids' personalities were like, but not much else. At the same time, it was nice to just do one generation, since I've already got so much going on (and I do want to finish the Durrances one of these days since they're already at Gen 7).

As far as the story, I usually have a set plot in mind for both Tellermans and CoH Sims, but if something odd happens in the middle, I'll try to add that if it looks interesting. Especially when the kids become teens and get interesting aspirations/LTWs, those are usually good for stories. Not always - I basically ignored the LTWs in Gen 8 of the Tellermans, for instance - but often I can tweak everyday occurrences and weird stuff together.

I'm glad the skintone worked out for you. And it's OK to move within the generation - the rules I came up with say that you can move as much as you want, as long as the family can afford the new lot (w/o money cheats, of course!).

Can't wait to see how your generation turns out!

[lesimnoir.livejournal.com]

I'm in the starting stages (well, with my writing at least) of a story-driven legacy. I actually had played to the start of the third generation, then decided to start over because the 'hood was so buggy.

For the most part, I let my sims determine the stories: the founder has this thing with his ex, so I set up an episode around it. There are a few more complicated plots that I came up with. I've actually got written stories ready for the second generation, even though I'm only playing the first. I find it easier to have the story in mind and then to take pictures as I go along, but I do like to let my sims lead the lives they want to.

I guess my main influence is the fact that the hood is inspired by film noir and pulp fictions, so my sims get to be as bad as the want to be. It gives me plenty of freedom as well.